Weekly Update

I haven't made much time to post words here of late. I have been trying to at least post a few pictures to keep you happy.

This weekend our AC is out again. The repair man came by on Friday afternoon and told us that the salt air had corroded the compressor, causing it to leak its refrigerant. But he couldn't fix it until he got authorization from the office. Saturday authorization came along with a broken promise that it would be fixed that day. At least it has been a cool(er) weekend with a breeze to make things bearable.

Karla and I have been home doing school work for most of the weekend. Our mid-term progress reports are already due this week coming up. This week we also had our meet the parents night on Thursday. When it was supposed to begin at 6:00 there was only one parent in the audience. But most of the parents has rolled in by 6:30 and I had a few visit me in my classroom. Not the usual 90% of parents of kids that I have no worries about: more like 50%. The school set me up with a grade 12 Honor Society student to work as my translator. After there was a big buffet put on by the PTA.

Friday night I went out with the guys. We met up at "The University Bar" a popular spot in the old town with cheap beer (60 cents a bottle, instead of the 55 you pay in the grocery store). While I was there, I bumped into June, a teacher who teaches at the British school in town who came in on the same flight as we did. June works with Flora, a teacher we worked with in Kuwait who is also starting in Cartagena this year. Karla and I have seen June 4 times since we arrived here, but never Flora. Flora did show up at the University bar and we were invited to a party at June's last night. After a couple beer, the boys moved out to a Colombian pool hall.

There were 30 light blue covered pool tables, surrounded by a variety of Colombian men. I wish I could have brought in my camera. Most of the tables didn't have pockets. The people play a game with three balls where the object is to hit both of the other balls with the cue ball. We got one of the few tables with pockets. We lasted until about 10 o'clock. By then, our games had grown in length to where the group that sat out got bored waiting for the other four to finally be lucky enough to sink all the balls.

Last night we went into El Centro, the old town, to June's party. We had never been in one of the apartments there. June's was amazing. It was the third (and top) floor The entrance was a wrought iron gate with a huge padlock on the outside. The walls were a mix of old fossil filled rock, coral and red brick mortared together - roofs were planks on to of big old 8x8 beams. The floors were tiled. June said the building was about 300 years old. Her apartment was on the top floor and had a tall, open living room area up to the peaked roof in the front. In the back, there is a flat roof that also serves as a terrace and lookout on the old town. It has great character, but was definitely not baby friendly.

Aysha still hasn't got the hang of crawling. Sometimes she starts, but moves backwards a bit, then stops. She much prefers to stand, and even is daring to stand with only one hand now. She has taken a couple of spills, but has been slow to cry so far. She has started eating semi-solids. We can't get cheerios here, so she has been challenged by the tiny little rice crispies. She enjoys them, but the end up spread far and wide. She also has tried bread cubes. Her success seems to be directly related to the size of the food.

We moved her bed into her own room this weekend too. We were very excited that she has her own room now. She is used to her room. She has had all her diapers changed there and Claudina and Aysha go in ther during the day sometimes to look out the window. There is a single bed beside her crib, so we can still be there to comfort her if she gets upset. She fell asleep easily the last two nights, but now that we have to work tomorrow, tonight will probably be when she decides she wants to come back into our room.